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Shoot the Bullet

東方文花帖 ~ Shoot the Bullet

Developer / Publisher: Team Shanghai Alice [上海アリス幻樂団]
30 December 2005
Shoot the Bullet [東方文花帖 ~ Shoot the Bullet] - cover art
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61 Ratings / 1 Reviews
#2,211 All-time
#75 for 2005
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A marvel that shows unexplored capabilities of STG
Shoot the Bullet is an unsung masterpiece of the STG genre that should be critically known as one of the most forward thinking shooters out there, because this game mixes bullet hell with photography with extremely tight gameplay and fun, inventive and beautiful patterns. While the Touhou series of games are practically mainstream in Japan (although oftentimes for the wrong reasons), I guess they're still something of a cultural artifact in the West, and not with the best reputation, whether it be "creepy anime" or "impossible bs", there's a certain stigma there that means the game attracts a mixture of weaboos and gameplay enthusiasts. They're also Doujin (non-commercial) games so the lack genuine hype surrounding Shoot the Bullet, a niché within a niché within a niché, is certainly understandable, but it is unforgivable all the same.

Shoot the Bullet was the first non-integer Touhou game (unless you count IaMP, but the fighters are bordering on fangames) which basically means that its an off-shoot of the main series of games. It is constructed completely differently from other Touhou games, which are generally arcade-style 6-stage games with a boss fight at the end of each stage. Shoot the Bullet, instead, is an "individual level" game with 85 "scenes", each consisting of a brief boss fight. Furthermore, whereas in other Touhou games you would shoot at enemies with your own bullets or "spellcards", in this game your only weapon is a camera, and you shoot pictures of the bosses. The goal in each scene is to snap a certain number of pictures of the boss until you win, and if you get hit, you have to retry the scene. It's a shooting game that breaks mechanical conventions and the arcade format convention for the genre masterfully.

Taking pictures might not sound exciting, but the game system is rather amazingly executed. Well, there is a sequel (Double Spoiler) which Improved on the scoring system somewhat, as it is a little basic in this game, but I've played this more so I'll save Double Spoiler reviews for another time. So, you take a certain number of pictures of the boss, to complete the scene. Longer scenes could require as many as 10 pictures, but other times you may only need to take 3 or 4. Sometimes when you take the pictures, the boss will switch its patterns, or the patterns may intensify. The difficulty is quite high, either in terms of pure dodging difficulty or the brain power needed to figure out how to beat the game, so it is not the most suitable game for newcomers! The bosses are all basically guest appearances from past games, but with brand new patterns.

So how do you fight with your camera exactly? The game is deceptively simple, with only two buttons to keep track of, there is still quite a bit to it. First of all, in order to snap a photo, you need to reach 100% charge. If you hold both the focus key (this key makes you move slower and focuses your camera lens, or in other games also "focuses" your options) and the shot key, you will move ultra slow and also charge your camera faster. Another way to charge your camera is to take pictures of bullets, more bullets means your camera will be higher charged after the picture. The cross hairs of the camera will follow your character and somewhat track the boss, it can be manipulated, and signifies where the frame will start from when you start shooting. So, when you're fully charged and you want to take the picture, you can hold the shot key and aim the frame somewhat, just beware as the frame will quickly shrink and even disappear if you hold it too long. In any case, it is possible to take the picture from further away, although it is better to go closer to the boss. You cannot move while you are shooting, so if you're planning to aim for a while, you could get sniped by bullets in the meantime, so take care. Because the frame disappears, you can't shoot all the way across the screen, either. Another important aspect of playing Shoot the Bullet is that your photo deletes all the bullets in the frame, and like I mentioned earlier, more bullets means you start with more charge after. You can use tricks like taking defensive photos of the bullets to prolong the scene but save your own skin or set up for easier boss photos afterwards, and it also balances out the casual "safety" mindset of aiming the photos, as the shrinking frame means you will also delete less bullets.

The patterns, visuals and music are immaculate. Just in terms of aesthetics alone, it is one of the greatest games I can think of, as I love the design of the patterns and the atmosphere. In terms of the fun factor of playing the patterns, it is also incredibly solid. You have here 85 scenes that are mostly very well designed, and quite often very unique, ranging from difficult random dodging material to tight puzzle-solving business. My personal favourite is 9-6 aka seamless ceiling of kinkaku-ji, oftentimes dubbed by scrubs as impossible, unfair, luckshit etc, but that is just total scrub shit talk xD! Anyway just for casual play alone, this is a real winner, but what kept me returning was the score play. You know, what would a photography game OR a shooting game be without a scoring system? Obviously the real goal of the game is to take the best pictures possible. The game will neatly save your "best shots" of each scene and show the pictures to you when you cycle through them, so the game is like your own little photo book, it's very neat. But what matters the most is not the best individual shots, but rather the best high score in each scene, so the best score you can reach after adding up all the photos you took after finishing. or perhaps even moreso, the highest overall score (all scenes combined). Now, if the game let you take more photos than intended by taking photos only of the bullets and avoiding the boss, or by swapping photos during gameplay or something like that, it could get pretty broken, but no, you don't get to choose your photos or something like that. Let's say you need 4 photos to complete a scene, that means you need to take 4 photos of the boss and then you finish, and those photos add up to your score in that scene. Simple, and not broken. Since there's a limited timer, you also have to take care not to rely too much on stalling tactics.

So how does the scoring system work? The backbone of the system is the "base value" of the photos, which is made up by all the bullets in the picture. Each bullet has a point value which will add up to your base points, and which is then multiplied by other metrics. For this reason, the aiming of the shots must be minimized, as the frame shrinking will reduce the number of bullets caught. However the game is well balanced in this regard because the frame won't start shrinking immediately, so you can actually aim the shot for a very brief moment without any loss, which is a crucial detail. Then, there's the multipliers. First, the boss multiplier. The closer the boss is to the middle of the frame, the higher the multiplier. If you want to aim your shot, it could get quite tricky to get the boss right in the middle, but since the lens will somewhat track the boss, if you're close enough you could just press the shot key and get the boss centered. Then there is the Self Shot. If your character is in the picture, you get a large multiplier which is quite essential in any scene. Obviously, in order to both be in the picture yourself and have the boss centered, you have to be quite close up. Next, there is the toughest multiplier to get in consistently, the Nice Shot. Most scenes have it but some scenes don't. StB is a very rhytmic, timing based game, as the getting Nice Shot bonuses are all based on timing your shots. The better your timing, the better the Nice Shot, down to the very frame (or zoom frames, as the game slows down while your picture is zooming). The bosses will show magic circles at regular intervals, meaning to time the nice shots you want to count "beats" rhythmically to nail the timing. I do this in almost every scene. The circle will be at its biggest on the first frame, and then get smaller and smaller each frame until it disappears. Getting this circle in the photo will give you a nice shot bonus, the better the timing, the higher the multiplier. So, if you're aiming for perfect Nice Shots, you will often end up shooting too early and not get any multiplier at all! There are some other bonuses, but these aren't really worth discussing.

The main thing in high level Shoot the Bullet play tends to come down to the base points, which is often a matter of RNG, or inventive outside-the-box thinking, assuming you have the Nice Shots, Boss Shots and Self Shots down, which is typically not the hardest part. There's various interesting factors to maximizing base points which are very scene dependant. For example, bullets will often glow brightly when they're spawned, if you catch them at that very moment, you could get a large (invisible) bonus. This in itself makes some scenes more timing based than you would think. Another example, because of the dimensions of the picture frame, you could get more points if the bullets are spread in a certain way, like if its an +/x shaped aimed pattern, you would want it aimed as an x so that the bullets are aimed into the corners of the frame, meaning more bullets will fit into the frame rather than a + shape. Putting a lot of thought into how to maximize your base points could range from "get lucky, sucker" to some real brain work or ridiculous execution, as if the risk involved in being close and the tight timing wasn't enough.

Essentially, Shoot the Bullet is just a joy to play, not just casually but especially for points. Personally this is the shooter I've put the most time into, well over 1000 hours of scoring and definitely my biggest short term obsession, I mainly played it over a period of less than half a year. Over that time, basically all I wanted to do was play Shoot the Bullet and improve my scores more and more. The burnout was real, though. I'm normally a very relaxed player but Shoot the Bullet did get me to snap a few times. Playing the same little thing for hours and hours and hours, it's easy to see the potential for anger building up, especially with how luck dependant StB can be. Since most scenes have significant RNG to them, usually it's mainly the bullet patterns being random, the base value is completely unstable. So in the long term, the optimization will typically come down to luck. I knew about that, and I was very involved with that, and I still kept playing. It was like playing the slots, except you were doing something skillful at the same time. I am burned out from StB now and don't return to it any more, but my accomplishments in it are possibly my best in anything. I would recommend to play this unique and wonderful game with its brilliant patterns and mechanics to pretty much anyone, and I think all players also should give the scoring an honest try, as that is IMO well communicated as being the primary goal, at least if you can beat the scenes to begin with. Still, is taking higher photos and competing any fun, well, that is just going to depend on the person. In some ways, I think Shoot the Bullet can be rather stupid at a high level, but it is a stupid game that I've spent a lot of time on and that has a genuine place right here, in my heart, in my soul. A game that has defined me and my life. When I was playing it the most, I was playing all fucking day, and it was glorious.

To sum it up, Shoot the Bullet is an essential shmup/phmup that you've probably overlooked. Overlook it no more.

PS: I prefer the sequel, Double Spoiler, nowadays, for its improved scoring mechanics, but I think Shoot the Bullet is better to start with.

PPS: Retrospective Kyoto is the best song.
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Catalog

eliottstaten 東方文花帖 ~ Shoot the Bullet 2024-03-16T20:22:07Z
2024-03-16T20:22:07Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
glorymdr 東方文花帖 ~ Shoot the Bullet 2024-02-29T17:15:52Z
Windows • JP
2024-02-29T17:15:52Z
5.0
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
voyageofathousandsounds 東方文花帖 ~ Shoot the Bullet 2024-02-15T16:16:48Z
2024-02-15T16:16:48Z
4.5
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
PrayforSake 東方文花帖 ~ Shoot the Bullet 2024-02-15T01:41:57Z
2024-02-15T01:41:57Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
5.555598416172731e+23 東方文花帖 ~ Shoot the Bullet 2024-02-04T21:58:40Z
2024-02-04T21:58:40Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
basicneutron 東方文花帖 ~ Shoot the Bullet 2024-01-30T15:11:39Z
Windows • JP
2024-01-30T15:11:39Z
3.5
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
theamazingxyz 東方文花帖 ~ Shoot the Bullet 2024-01-28T14:32:14Z
2024-01-28T14:32:14Z
3.5
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
vladkick 東方文花帖 ~ Shoot the Bullet 2024-01-22T10:36:09Z
2024-01-22T10:36:09Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
LocoJake 東方文花帖 ~ Shoot the Bullet 2024-01-03T21:24:39Z
2024-01-03T21:24:39Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
21stCenturyDevil 東方文花帖 ~ Shoot the Bullet 2023-12-30T21:39:19Z
2023-12-30T21:39:19Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
hevykofe 東方文花帖 ~ Shoot the Bullet 2023-12-28T07:13:47Z
Windows • JP
2023-12-28T07:13:47Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
dolu 東方文花帖 ~ Shoot the Bullet 2023-11-09T02:23:27Z
Windows • JP
2023-11-09T02:23:27Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Player modes
Single-player
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1x CD-ROM
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  • Touhou Bunkachou ~ Shoot the Bullet
  • Shoot the Bullet
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